The trip to Santa Barbara

The trip was pretty cool on the train.

The train is by FAR better then a bus or train. It gives you the opportunity to stand, walk around, stretch, play the guitar in the lounge car and scare small children (the parents were cool though).

I passed a couple of vegetation fields, and some poor people were out digging and seeding the land, watering each of the the crops, I think they were all working for the state....... they were all wearing this stripy uniform and had their feet shackled

Some crops, minus the workers

short cut through the mountain

Once I got to Santa Barbara I was looking around for the hostel, which was apparently supposed to be across the road from the train station. Well I had a look around, and all I could see was a bike shop. Thinking I had to walk another few miles with all my gear (no easy feat with the amount of crap I'm dragging around), I loaded it all up as the train pulled away..... to reveal the hostel directly across from the train station. SWEET.

The hostel was pretty cool, although not as cool as the ones in Hawaii. Having said that I have
never heard anyone more impressed with hostels then those I stayed at in Hawaii.

A view from the hostel in Santa Barbara

I met a couple of hostel goers on the first night, Kate from England on her way back home (via San Francisco) and Joel from Canada who was working in Santa Barbara. Both were very cool, it's always good meeting new people in hostels, it kind of reminds me of the first days of school where everyone is sussing each other out and trying to establish the groups that you'll be hanging around in.... except the criteria is MUCH more different this time around.

I caught up with Billy the second day, he picked me up and we went cruising around the place and checked out the sites of Santa Barbara. Unfortunately there is no surf here at the moment, which is seriously bumming me out. I need to get back in the ocean soon...... really soon.

I met one of Billy's mates, an aussie from Sydney called Max. And get this, he went to school with Cameron McNally. Talk about a small freaking world.

Anyway, my focus now is on getting a car and getting myself down to mexico as quickly as possible, back to warm climate, warm water, and surf.

I've found someone to travel with through Baja too, one of my couch surfing hosts room mates friends.

Anyway, I had better get back to the car searching and phone calls.